What Is a Subaward and a Subrecipient?

To understand the definitions of “subaward” and “subrecipient”, it helps to think in terms of a grant that has just been won. If you are not sure what an “award” is, start with the What Is an Award? post then come back.

Rather than the grantor (i.e., the grant-making agency) entrusting just one entity with carrying out a federal program, sometimes multiple awardees will shoulder the responsibilities.

In such cases, one entity – the one who submitted the grant application – will serve as a pass-through to the partnering entities, which are called subrecipients.

The government funding they receive to carry out their responsibilities is called the subaward.

A non-Federal entity that receives a subaward from a pass-through entity to carry out part of a Federal program; but does not include an individual that is a beneficiary of such program. A subrecipient may also be a recipient of other Federal awards directly from a Federal awarding agency.

Meanwhile, subaward is defined as follows:

An award provided by a pass-through entity to a subrecipient for the subrecipient to carry out part of a Federal award received by the pass-through entity. It does not include payments to a contractor or payments to an individual that is a beneficiary of a Federal program. A subaward may be provided through any form of legal agreement, including an agreement that the pass-through entity considers a contract.

There are different eligibility groups who can receive federal grants. That said, federal grants are not awarded for personal use. You can see the different eligibility groups listed on the Grants.gov Search page: https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/search-grants.html